The Camping Debate: Tents vs RVsBy angelamontana

I am a huge fan of camping, as are most Montana residents, I assume. But, when is camping not really camping anymore?

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Well, as a “rough it” kind of person most of my life, I have always been all about the tents and the whole “less is more” thing, and sometimes just a sleeping bag in the bed of our truck is enough….but, one Memorial Day weekend, that all changed.

We went camping with a group of people, and three of the families we were with had camp trailers. I actually kind of felt sorry for them. They weren’t REALLY camping like we were–in our two room tent with a screened in porch area and sleeping bags on the ground with coolers and gallon jugs of water. We spent all day outside hanging out, dirt biking, hiking around and just sitting by the fire. When it got late, everybody went to bed in their camp trailers, and we went to our tent. It was really cold outside, but our sleeping bags were rated for -40 degrees, so the cold air felt good to breathe while we were toasty in our “beds”.

In the morning, we woke up to an inch of wet sloppy snow covering everything–and I mean everything! We had a pool of water at our heads and feet, and our sleeping bags were soaked where the waterproof shell was pulled back. We got up and went to the picnic table, shivering and wet, and saw everybody coming out of their camp trailers after taking showers and cooking eggs and sausage on their stoves. They were all refreshed, energetic and, best of all, DRY. Everything changed at that point for me.

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It wasn’t more than 2 weeks later that we ended up buying a camp trailer, and I will never look at RV camping in a negative way again. I mean, we still truck bed camp every now and then with the dirt bikes, but I have found that it IS still camping in an RV. Granted, our RV is old school and doesn’t come equipped with a television set (thank goodness) or a microwave, but that’s fine for us. It isn’t like we spend time in the RV during the day, anyway. It is basically a motel room to sleep in at night and a shower when we’re dirty.

Nothing beats actually getting some sleep in an actual bed while you’re camping AND taking a shower the next day while making coffee! We don’t have a generator for ours yet, but we have hooked it up to a generator in the past, and when it’s 100 degrees outside, and 70 at night, that air conditioner sure feels good!

So, let me clarify that nothing beats the wall tent and the wood stove during our 10-day stay at hunting camp, but camping in the summertime, especially being a dirt biker, with a shower is an amazing thing after you’ve been sweating for hours in 90-degree heat.

This is all my personal opinion, but I am curious what your thoughts are… Do you tent camp, or do you RV camp? And what are your reasons behind doing one or the other?